BJJ Blogging in NZ

BJJ Blogging in NZ

Well yes okay, if you’re gonna twist my arm I’ll admit it. Maybe I do view Ronda Rousey in a slightly different light to the other UFC Champs. Maybe it’s just a little bit to do with that cheeky grin of hers and possibly even might have a tiny bit to do with that body of hers, that she always seems so ready to utilise in various photo shoots, and market in ways male champions might find a little more challenging at the very least.

But the particular attribute I’m really focused on this time, is that elite level Judo skill of hers.It was great watching her fight for more than her usual single round and great seeing her stay standing to bang with Meisha again and again. But the best thing, in my opinion, was watching how she rag dolled Meisha with the takedowns when she went for them. Even more, the way Ronda reversed Meisha’s takedowns repeatedly.This gif below (borrowed from “Art of Grappling” website, who have a great piece about this from a much more professional point of view than me), of Ronda reversing Meisha’s takedown by pulling an uchi mata was ultimately satisfying for me on a personal level. This is exactly the same as what happened to me when I rolled with “Judo Paul” a few weeks back (except I was on the right not the left like Meisha).

Takedown defense? Yeah well the best form of defense is attack. Check it out!

And now have a look at this from their first fight, just for fun…..

Ooow that looks painful to me!?

I’m probably gonna talk myself into trouble with this next bit, but as this is my BJJ blog I’ll assume I’m in similar minded company. Now I obviously believe Jiu Jitsu is the far superior ground fighting technique over Judo. Ok? agreed? So I’ll make another assumption and assume you agree.

(now here comes the bit I’m gonna get in trouble for)

But getting to the ground from that standing face off position, will often mean Judo has a distinct advantage in my experience. Look at the gif above and tell me how likely you would be to do much of anything after that, if it had happened to you, on the floor? Not the mats at training, not a sprung octagon ring, THE floor!. Even if you could do much, your oponent would have landed on you in side control and could do quite a bit too.

Now look, obviously both Judo and Jiu Jitsu have their own varied advantages and disadvantages, so I’m not saying one is “better” than the other. Far from it! I really don’t want shed loads of either practitioners, kicking my arse with either technique to prove the point. What I am saying, is that I think you would be a fool to ignore the advantages you could gain learning Judo as a supporting discipline while training Jiu Jitsu.

"Absorb what is useful, disguard what is not"
Bruce Lee

With that in mind I am going to work on scheduling at least one Judo class a week into my training routine (God and Wife willing of course). What is there to lose by adding more to my goal of learning…….

One thought on “Ronda Rousey proves BJJ + Judo > BJJ / Judo”

I really like this topic and it’s not talked about enough. Everywhere on the internet it’s constantly BJJ vs Judo (or BJJ / Judo as you put it) rather than BJJ+Judo.

I always see BJJ and Judo as the same damn thing, grappling with a gi on. It just so happens that there are two different competition sets for this jacket wrestling sport. One is called BJJ and one is called Judo. I know a lot of people disagree with this because there are aspects to both martial arts that aren’t just about grappling in a gi, but it’s like the Bruce Lee quote you have above, “absorb what is useful and discard the rest”.

I think Judo used to be a bit more well rounded – say in the late 70s through to late 80s (Ronda Rousey’s moms era). This was when there were a lot less restrictions like leg grabbing, and not much of a time limit which lended itself to more groundwork.

A brief history on how the rules got so effed up in Judo. IJF (International Judo Federation – a big European organization that has slowly taken over and monopolized International Judo, which all countries now “report” to) wanted to make Judo more TV friendly so they started cutting down time on the ground to almost zero. Players started figuring out they could spam leg attacks like singles and doubles without being countered. If they failed they would turtle up and ref would call matte, if they got a score, perfect! Judo started becoming this ridiculous shoot in and turtle game to the point where they had to ban leg attacks because it was getting stupid. (read more about it in a book called the Pyjama game, review here ).

Anyways, I’m glad you’re making time for judo! I think cross training is becoming more and more common. I started out doing BJJ/Judo and Muay Thai but at some point ran out of time and decided to focus on getting good (or at least to a certain level) at one thing. That ended up being judo for me, now I’ve gotten to that certain baseline level I set for myself 8 or 9 years ago and I’m back to incorporating BJJ in my game.